HOUSE LINKED TO MEXICAN UNION CHIEF IN TAX TROUBLE

More than $27,000 owed on Coronado waterfront property

CORONADO 
A $4.7 million waterfront residence linked to the detained leader of Mexico’s powerful teachers union is delinquent on its property taxes — to the tune of $27,473.82, according to the San Diego County Treasurer-Tax Collector’s Office.

Elba Esther Gordillo, 68, longtime head of the National Union of Education Workers, is accused by Mexican federal prosecutors of using embezzled funds to purchase the six-bedroom, seven-bath waterfront house in Coronado Cays.

A check for $24,976.20 presented last year in payment for the first installment of the house’s annual property tax was returned for insufficient funds, said Dan McAllister, treasurer-tax collector for the county. As a result, a 10 percent penalty automatically kicked in Dec. 10.

The home and a second residence across the street have been held up by Mexican federal prosecutors as examples of the lavish lifestyle adopted by Gordillo, a Mexican schoolteacher who rose to head the largest trade syndicate in Latin America. She is accused of embezzling close to $160 million in union funds to pay for personal luxuries that include plastic surgery, purchases at Neiman Marcus and a travel in a private airplane.

McAllister said that the check for the Coronado Cays property tax came from Ha Property Management & Processing Services, which lists a Chula Vista address. The registered agent is listed as Hector Avila Rivera by the California secretary of state.

The county’s records show that Ha Property Management on Nov. 1 also wrote a $21,628.70 check as the first installment on the property tax on another residence in Coronado Cays also being linked to Gordillo, assessed at $4 million and currently under construction. That check cleared, McAllister said.

County records for both residences list the owner as Comercializadora TTS, S.A. de C.V., a Mexican corporation. The records identify the majority partner as Zoila Armendariz, or Zoila Estela Morales Ochoa, who holds 99 percent of the shares, said Ernie Dronenberg, assessor-recorder-clerk for the county. The woman is Gordillo’s late mother, who died in 2009.

U-T research manager Merrie Monteagudo contributed to this report. sandra.dibble@utsandiego.com